The Baby
by Daughter of Lestrange
Summary: A tiny infant shows up at Bayern's palace. Who she is and where she's from causes a massive surprise. Will Ani and Geric find it in their heart to love her, or will she be punished for others wrong doings?


((I'm doing this story just to see if I'm any good at doing Shannon Hale's works! Please let me know what you think!))

The wind outside slammed against the castle walls. Ani was happy that less of it leaked inside these days. Her beloved husband had taken it upon himself to stop up all the bottoms of the doors and re-seal all of the windows so that the breezes could no longer get in. True, there was still moving air, but not nearly as much as before. Ani could actually hear herself think now.

The rain poured down and thunder crashed overhead. Ani, Geric, Enna, and Razo all sat around the fireplace, where Enna had created an brilliant flame. Ani was feeling rather upset. He darling goose Jok had passed away that morning. His mate had passed a few months earlier. Ani thought sadly of the little nest he had made in she and Geric's large walk-in closet. He had also left a slight indent at the foot of their bed.

She remembered very clearly when she and Geric had gone to bed after a beautiful spring festival. Geric had been about to sit on the bed, when Jok had come out of nowhere, honking like mad. He had fluffed himself up to almost double his size, his wings spread wide. His head was down, hissing angrily. He had given Geric's backside several good pecks. Ani couldn't help but giggle at Geric's startled face.

"Wh-what on earth is he doing? Ani, your goose has finally lost it!"

Composing herself, Ani had asked Jok why he had assaulted Geric.

_The egg! The egg! Protect! Save! Mate will be mad if I fail! Must protect egg!_ He had squawked, frantically.

Ani was about to reply, but she stopped and blinked. "He says... oh, Jok! Pardon me, love."

Geric moved aside for Ani to deal with her pet. She held her hand out to him, trying to show she meant no harm.

_All is safe. The threat is gone. May I see the egg? _Ani honked out to him. _I will protect it. I want to show my mate. May I?_

Geese, she knew, were extremely protective. However, they also liked to show off, especially their eggs. They were very envious creatures and had a need to see that their egg was the best. Jok supposed that Ani's curiosity meant that his egg was superior to her own – which in his mind, was why Geric had tried to squash it in the first place. Now Geric was about to get a good peck in the head from her, for not making a larger egg. Little did Jok know, Ani had never laid an egg in her life. If her son Tusken had come in one however, it would have put even an ostrich to shame.

Jok backed down in any case, allowing Ani to push back one of the pillows. There, nestled in a clump of sheets, was large, white egg.

"See, Geric? You almost sat on he and Rosanna's egg. He had every right to be grumpy. You could have crushed their little gosling."

Rosanna was the name Ani had given to Jok's little mate. She was a beautiful goose, though a bit older and smaller then he was.

Geric made a face. "She laid an egg in our bed? Of all the nerve!"

Ani laughed. "I highly doubt they want it there now."

She told Jok that she would put it in his nest, and that she wanted it to be kept there. Jok agreed, giving Geric one last resentful honk before he waddled after Ani to sit on the egg.

"The same to you, sir!" Geric huffed.

Ani couldn't contain her laughter as she went back to hug Geric. He kissed her forehead.

"I really don't think that I deserved that. I'm going to have a bruise. What excuse am I going to give for not wanting to sit on the throne? There is no way that I'm telling people that I got goosed by... well, by a goose."

"Sit on a cushion, then," Ani had grinned.

"Ani?"

Enna's voice brought her back out of her thoughts. She sniffled, then sighed. No more tears, she decided. Jok was in a better place now. He had been as good as a goose could get. He was probably flying free or swimming in a crystal pond. He had all the eggs he could ever want, and plenty of bums to peck. Ani hoped that the grass really was greener on the other side.

"I'm sorry. I'll just miss him, that's all."

"You can always talk to his goslings," Enna suggested. "I'm sure one of them would want to live inside. How fun would it be to have a guard goose? We can train it to chase Razo."

Ani had to laugh at that. She decided that she would go out to the pond when it stopped raining and see if a new goose would come home with her. It wasn't only for her, she reasoned. Tusken had gotten used to Jok and would miss him – as much as a baby could miss.

As she thought of her little boy, the wind carried a new sound to her. The howl had changed to a baby's cry. He had probably woken up and wet himself. Ani smiled softly and touched Geric's shoulder.

"Tussie is upset," she said, using the new nickname they had given their son. "I'll go get him."

"Get him? But he's right here, Isi," Razo said.

Ani looked up. She hadn't even noticed that someone had brought her baby out. She inwardly scolded herself for being so absent. What else had she missed that day? She shook herself out of it and grinned at Razo's interaction with her son. Tusken was nestled in her friend's lap, gnawing the side of Razo's thumb. Tusken only had gums, so she knew it didn't hurt, but it was very wet and sticky. She could see the drool dripping off Razo's hand. He would tickle the baby, making Tusken laugh and let go of his hand long enough to wipe the drool off.

"But if Tusken's here, then who's baby is crying?"

"I don't hear anything," Enna said.

Ani listened again. The wind whispered of a child in the rain, bringing with it the sound of the infant's screams. It grew faint the second it hit the palace doors. That was when she realized the sound was coming from the front stairs.

"It's outside," she said. "There's a baby outside!"

She raced to the door with the others behind her. Sure enough, there was a very large, woven basket on the front step. There was a a mass of blankets heaped into it, and right in the center was a crying bundle.

Geric picked up the basket and took it inside. They all headed back to the fireside, and began to unwrap the little one like a large present. The baby had only been wrapped in blankets and had a tiny, plain white tunic on to serve as a nightshirt. The little one screamed at the sudden chill from the absence of the blankets.

"Aw, I apologize, little pudding,"Ani said softly. "Have we upset you? You looked quite warm in there. Did you want to stay that way?"

She gently lifted the baby out of the basket, along with one of the knitted wool blankets. She held the tiny body close, and it took no time at all for it quite down. Ani smiled.

"All you needed was a bit of attention? I don't suppose you've had much, if someone could just abandon you out in the rain. Why, you just want to be loved!" She put her finger in the baby's tiny fist. "Are you a boy or girl? Hm? I think we must know that before anything. May I peek?"Ani lifted the little tunic and took a quick look inside the cloth diaper. "It's a girl."

There was a letter tucked in between the baby's body and the inside of the clothing. Ani took it out and immediately recognized the royal Kildenree seal. The others were just as shocked as she was, when she told them. She handed it to Geric to read. He looked up, stunned at first, then furious.

"Of all the nerve! Of all the devious, rotten nerve! After all we went through and they have the audacity to do _this_!" He shouted. "Oh, Isi, am I ever glad you are staying here now. You were living with a bunch donkeys over there! I don't see how you survived!"

Ani had to keep from laughing. She definitely hadn't had the easiest home life in Kildenree. Still, her mother had tried to do one last favor of sending her handkerchief of protection before Ani had made her trek to Bayern. She was thankful for that, though it didn't make up for the sneaky act of shipping her off in the first place. She had never heard it put that way, but now that she thought about it, that term seemed to fit.

"Hush, love," she said. "You're going to upset the baby... both of them. What is it? What does the letter say?"

Geric gave the new baby a dirty look. "I think you had best put that thing down, Isi."

"What?" Enna gasped. "How can you say that? She's so small, Geric! What has she done?"

"It's what she could do,"he replied."Listen to this!"He angrily straightened the letter out in front of him and began to read. "To all concerned: by royal decree of Kildenree, this child is to be sent to it's native country of Bayern. The mother Selia has been sentenced to a life imprisonment and the father, Ungolad, is deceased. Though both are native Kildenreans, the child in question was created in Bayern, therefore making it a legal citizen of your country. What you choose to do with it is no longer our concern, though it may return to Kildenree without undue repercussions of her mother's criminal charges. Signed, The Prime Minister of Kildenree with approval of the queen."

They were all silent. Selia had been pregnant? Ani was glad now that she had not let Geric's father carry out the spiked barrel sentence. She looked down at the baby, who had large tears leaking out of her big blue eyes. The baby didn't resemble her mother too much, unless Ani looked very close. She was tightly clutching the fabric of Ani's dress between the breasts, as if she Ani was the last safe place on earth. She looked so harmless – and she was, for now. Yet Ani couldn't help but wonder if Selia had passed on her people-speaking abilities. If that was the case, this baby had the potential to be just as dangerous as her mother, if not more.

"What are we going to do?" Enna asked quietly.

"Send her back," Razo replied without any hesitation.

"I agree," Geric nodded. "I'm not going to nurse a small murderer here. I almost had to marry that woman. I'm not about to get stuck with her child! Apparently, we just can't get rid of her."

"This is terrible. They know exactly what she did to us. How could they send her baby back here? I guess they don't really want her either. I suppose they think that if they have to harbor her, even in a prison, that it's only fair that we have to deal with her spawn," said Enna.

"Market day is coming. Perhaps we could sell her,"Razo suggested. "Or she could be one of the prizes for a game. You don't suppose one of your chickens could lay an egg large enough to hide her in, do you?"

Enna and Geric laughed.

"Listen, she was given to us, so why couldn't we just pass her along to someone else? Do either of you know anyone in the forest who might actually like a baby?"

"No, but I do know some who wouldn't particularly mind it if one were to show up," Enna replied. "What do you think, Isi?"

Ani was staring down the baby. The little one had stopped crying and has nestled deep into Ani's chest. She was nodding off to sleep, her tiny hand still grasping the dress. Enna posed a good question. What _did _she think?

"Well... certainly, she could be dangerous, but we don't know. To be honest, I don't think Selia was raised properly. Her mother wasn't a very kind person – not what I saw of her, anyway. I'm not sure about her father. In fact, I don't know that she had one.

"You know, Selia wasn't always corrupt. When we were little, she was always so nice to me. I think the jealousy started once we were older. When she first betrayed me, I used to think back on how much fun we had had together. I wished it hadn't changed for a little while. I thought maybe she would be found out right away and crawl back and apologize. Obviously, I was wrong.

"In any case, this little one is only a baby. She isn't something we can just pawn off. She's still a person, no matter who her parents are. I think she just needs to be raised to be a respectable person. She needs love. We should at least give her a chance. I think she came here for a reason. After all, if people judged me by my mother, apparently I'd be a donkey."

Geric couldn't help but laugh. "I suppose so. There is another problem with this. If we accept her, then there could be a whole bunch of people dumping unwanted children onto us. If they think we have taken in one poor, abandoned child, then they might turn theirs in, just hoping to give their baby a better life. We would have to build a new nursery building and hire a whole new crew of nursemaids."

"Then pass a new law to make it illegal for anyone to leave a child here, unless it's for work. That seems simple enough."

"I don't know, Isi." Geric sighed. "I just could not stand to see you hurt again. If you get yourself so attached to her and raise her as your own, that would make the pain even worse."

Ani wanted to tell him that if she raised the baby, she wouldn't even put the thought in her head to do that. Still, she didn't want to argue with her husband. If he thought that it was best, then he was probably right. She thought that perhaps she was just being blinded by her mothering instincts.

She went to sit down, to think about it some more before her final answer. She rested the baby's body in her lap. She gently wiped the remaining teardrops off the infant's pudgy cheeks. Just then, she felt something at her feet.

Tusken had crawled over to her, feeling that his mother was upset. He looked up at her, baby concern in his huge blue eyes. He used her dress to pull himself up then leaned against her knee. He wanted to see why there was such a fuss over the bundle of blankets.

"Mama?" He squeaked, reaching up to her.

Ani grinned at him. "Are you curious, little man?" She laughed and leaned over to pull him up.

He sat on the edge of her leg. He laid his hand on the blanket, then poked at the little one's face. Ani took his hand away and kissed his finger, telling him to be gentle.

"Waz?" Tusken asked, using his own word for 'what's that?'

"This is a baby,"she explained. "You are still a bit of a baby yourself, but you have gotten to be a very big boy! She's just very little. Little baby!"

"Baaaby?" he asked, dragging the word out.

"Yes! Look at you, you are so smart."

"I knew it was a baby, too," Razo mockingly pouted.

"Oh, good for you Razo! What a smart boy you are! You deserve a cookie!" Enna said, gently pushing him with her shoulder.

They all laughed. Tusken looked up at his mother happily.

"My?" He wondered. "My baby?"

It was quiet for a second, except for Enna's quiet 'aw!' Ani felt her heart crack completely. Her son didn't care who the baby was or who she could be. He just saw someone to love.

"Well, Geric?" Ani asked.

"Oh... oh, alright. How can I say no to you two? Perhaps he knows better then I do."

Ani grinned and hugged the sleeping baby close. She may have lost Jok, but hoped that she had just gained something that would be much more meaningful for much longer then any goose.

((Thanks for reading, PLEASE review! Let me know if you'd like me to continue this, or if it's good as it stands. I'm content with it either way!))


End file.
